A bona fide guitar legend, Joe Walsh has enjoyed over five decades of making music with some of the most iconic names in the industry. From his earliest work with the James Gang in the mid-’60s to his membership in the Eagles, Walsh’s guitar prowess and unique style thrilled audiences and caught the ears of other ’60s legends like Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, and Jimmy Page. Walsh has visited Sweetwater several times and sat down for interviews. We’ve always enjoyed his insights into his own art as well as music in general. Here are some excerpts from several of those interviews.
Sweetwater: You’ve said recently that one of the things you really enjoy about playing live is being able to “zone out” and just play guitar. What gets you to that place, that zone?
You gotta have the right band. A lot of live music today seems preplanned. I like to surround myself with players who are on the same wavelength. I have to trust them. I give everybody the freedom to create and improvise. So I wouldn’t call us a “jam” band, but there is a lot of leeway in the middle to make it different every night. So when it starts clicking, it’s amazing music. After all these years, that’s what’s really working for me. The environment has to be right to get in that zone. And I’ve got a great environment.
You’ve mentioned that you like to tell the players in your touring band what NOT to play. What kind of things are you telling them not to do?
Well one thing is the whole band can’t play the same thing.
So everybody has to kind of come up with their own take on what’s being played?
Yeah. I have two drummers. They have to put it in the pocket, and they can never budge from that. If they both start playing 16th-note fills, or start syncopating or getting too busy on the kicks… it can turn into a train wreck. Trying to get everybody to play less is the secret. There’s a tendency on the road to kind of memorize your part and play that. That’s not what I want. What I want is that “first 10 shows” mentality when nobody had a clue what they were going to play… I want that through the whole tour, night after night.
So it’s spontaneous?
Yeah. You gotta keep that mentality. So sometimes I have to get on them. ‘You know that fill you play in this section? I love that fill… don’t play it anymore…play something else. Play anything you want; just make sure I like it.’
What is it that makes a great musician?
Being able to function if there’s a lot of things not right. Remembering how to set your own equipment up before you could afford to have somebody else do it. When your amp blows up, knowing what happened. Gotta know how to play sick. You may feel terrible, but so what? Go play! All of that and not letting your emotions own you. It’s OK to feel mad, but it’s not OK to be mad. You can’t let your emotions own you. They’re just feelings. All of these things go into making a really great musician.